Virtual University

The current research tries to offer a conceptual model in order to create trust among people for choosing virtual universities. To this end, the conceptual model of research has been designed with nine factors. The relationship among factors tested by using statistical methods such as factor analysis and path analysis. In the end, five components were established from among the affecting factors of student trust towards these virtual universities. They are: academic reputation, administrative efficacy, size, economical factor of studying and the suitable environmental conditions for virtual universities activity. However, it was established that the role of each of these components in creating trust towards virtual universities were different from those predicted by the researchers. Also, it was established that student's willingness toward choosing virtual universities is being influenced by the trust factor.

Education systems in the world are enduring COVID-19 induced perturbations and consequences. Given the growing use of E-learning during COVID-19 epidemic and expansion of Internet-based infrastructure, the need for a resilient approach to e-learning systems is deeply felt. This paper aims to address the issue of how to provide a model for evaluating the resilience of E-learning in Iranian virtual universities during the outbreak of coronavirus employing an Adaptive Neuro-Based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). In the present paper, 5 substantial factors including individual, assessment and support, content, agility, and technology were identified as inputs, and e-learning resilience was considered as single output. Moreover, ANFIS was employed to model the resilience of E-learning systems. Findings revealed almost medium to low degree of resilience for the e-learning system established in Iran’s virtual university. Statistical analysis demonstrated that there was no meaningful difference between experts’ opinions and our proposed procedure for E-learning resilience measurement. The proposed model showed significant sensitivity to changes in agility. Therefore, agility should be considered as the first priority in achieving the desired level of resilience for the e-learning systems of the Iranian virtual university.